SF Cyclotouring

12/19/2011

Via Flickr:Rode the Bonty RL with new Kona P-2 rigid fork on a Marin Headlands loop. 1:30pm to 5:30pm or so -- around 4 hours total. Rode across the GGB, up Conzelman, down Coastal, up Miwok, Old Springs Trail, down to Tennessee Valley, then back up Marincello, connect to Bobcat, to Rodeo Valley, back up Coastal, down Conzelman, back across the GGB, and back home. I'm guessing about 35-40 miles total. Bike worked fairly well. New handlebars are good in terms of reach and height, but are too wide. Rear shifting is still wonky in the large chainring. Bike still shimmies, even with the new fork, too.

Via Flickr:Snagged a stick or something on my commute home last night, which tore off the back half of my front fender. (FWIW, the SKS strut safety releases did their job!) Fortunately, I had a spare set of SKS P-45s stashed away, so replacing the front was fairly easy. I cut a good section out of the trashed fender and added it onto the front of the replacement to lengthen it under the rack. I'm not happy with the zip-tie attachment onto the rack, but I was running out of time last night, and it was all I could come up with. I should've added a threaded fender mount under the rack platform's crossmember when I built it....

12/02/2011

Recently I measured my Kogswell 59x700C P/R's fork -- the one designed for 40mm trail on this frame. It's 400mm axle to crown, give or take:

The blueprint says this fork should be 365mm, which is impractically short for a 700C-wheel frame. (?!?!?)

I also just got a Wixey digital angle gauge, and used that to measure all theangles on my 59x700C P/R frame. They all vary pretty far from the as-designed values. My bike has a head angle around 71.5-72º, which is supposed to be 73.6º.

The seat angle measures 70.6º vs. the specified value of 72.4º.

Finally, as you can see on the blueprint above, the BB drop is supposed to be 79mm, while the actual value measures to around 70mm.

This makes me wonder if, overall, the fork was manufactured too long. If it was 20mm shorter, it'd be closer to the blueprint, and both of the frame angles would be a full degree steeper (10mm of fork change makes the head angle about half a degree steeper). FWIW, there ARE about 20mm of spacers between the fork crown and the front fender, indicating that the fork is longer than it needs to be.